Counting
by Anora-the-Dreamer
Summary: Inuyasha? The girl looked more frightened than she did when facing down two ton demons. Ever think of how many ways there are for us to die? Oneshot


**Counting  
By River-Spirit  
**A/N- Well, not a lot to say. I changed my screenname 'cause that's what I do when I get bored. Not very smart, granted...Oh, well.  
You can flame me and tell me off all you want! (For writing one-shots when I should be updating.) I (20 hours of chores and 5 weeks of allowance later) own season one of Inuyasha! WHEE!  
Okay, this theme is a LOT darker than anything I usually do. So sorry if it sucks. Also, there is a sorta happy ending. So just read to the end, kay?  
**Summary: **"Inuyasha?" The girl looked more frightened than she did when facing down two ton demons. "Ever think of how many ways there are for us to die?" One-shot

The sound reached Inuyasha's ears long before the others even flinched. It was high-pitched, loud, piercing; he seemed to hear it with his very bones.  
He glanced around the camp, looking for the tell-tale signs, sure enough; Sango looked around among the trees, then settled down again, realizing that whatever it was it wasn't going to harm any of them.

Miroku twitched almost imperceptibly, grasping mentally for a deep primal knowledge, he knew precisely what that sound was, but in time he reached the same conclusion Sango had, until it came close, it wasn't worth pondering, he also knew he didn't really want to know.  
Shippou and Kirara slept straight through it, delightfully oblivious.

Still, the atmosphere was tense. Miroku tried half-heartedly to grope her, but a few strained glares and they both rolled over placidly, finding sleep after a quarter of an hour.

It was Kagome who figured it out, by accident he was fairly sure, or perhaps she had ear something similar back where she had come from. All he saw was her sit upright, suddenly, eyes wide with horror and tears collecting at the corners of her eyes. She gave him a pained glance; he returned it with a stony glare.

The sound was coming from cat demons some five miles down into a valley, near a river, the screech drowned out the gurgling of the rocky waterfall.  
It was a death song, or keening. The horrible part-screech, part-song and part-whimper made by those in grieving. There was no other word for it. The keening was terrifying. All of them, subconsciously or otherwise, had started breathing very quickly, their heart rates were going haywire, and he could hear it.  
They sat there, fire flickering casting shadows over the camp, both becoming enthralled by the ground.

Kagome was able to speak first clearing her throat, and asking, almost inaudibly, "What died?"  
"Cat demon." He had to grit his teeth trying not to make a sound.  
More silence, the world seemed to grow darker as the atmosphere grew more awkward.

"Inuyasha?" The girl looked more frightened than she did when facing down two ton demons. "Ever think of how many ways there are for us to die?"

The hanyou turned away quickly, trying not to snap at her. What kind of question was that? Kami-sama, no wonder she cried so much!

Still, he grunted and they both knew that was all the encouragement to speak she was ever going to get. Hell, had it been anyone else he probably would have pummeled them for talking like that.

"Well," she seemed to have trouble beginning. "I mean, the list goes on and on. We're really in absolute constant danger; any of us could die any minute of anything. I mean, there's kazaana..."

_It was a seemingly peaceful meal at midday. Everyone was fighting, pummeling each other, chattering amiably about nothing, or sitting sulkily from a high-up tree branch._

_In a moment everything changed. First, it started with Miroku standing up deliberately, shivering and eyes almost lolling back and forth._

_Everyone halted, staring at him and slowly began demanding explanations, Sango standing up and walking towards Miroku._

_He stared at her and started violently. He shoved her; it was so unexpected she went flying into Kirara, nearly crushing both her and Shippou._

_"Houshi-sama?" She looked surprised and worried, but her eyes were also tinged with hurt._

_He opened his mouth, but no words came out. He turned toward the surrounding forest, walking stiffly at first, but the going into a wild run, slamming into thorny bushes and trees, but going through the like they were liquid somehow._

_First only an arm broke, he barely noticed the pain in the panic running through his veins. Next a few ribs, crack, crack, crack. It didn't matter if his body was broken; all that mattered was that he got as far away from here as it possible. _

_Alas, all his efforts were in vain. The next hit was to the jaw, breaking it and half his skull. _

_As for the rest of them, they were chasing after him in moments, thinking, not without reason, that he was possessed.  
Kagome looked at Inuyasha with a stern glare. "Don't hurt him. No matter what."_

_"Feh." the hanyou muttered, but doubled his pace, looking for his telltale scent._

_They saw the monk; he was in a fetal position, broken and bloody. Still, his wounds had nothing on what was coming up. _

_Though Inuyasha held tetsusaiga high as he moved in towards the monk. He was writhing and trying to tell them something, but all he could say was. "Et Gowa, et oway,"_

_It was Sango who finally figured it out as his hand went into nothingness. But by then it was too late. By the time she figured it out she was going into darkness too. _

"Naraku, of course..."

_This was it. This was what it was all coming down to, this last fight, the one they HAD to win. _

_Still, as not to deceive, the tension was running high. There were three jewel shards left, two with Kouga and, of course, and one which was still in Kohaku. All of the aforementioned, along with our favorite traveling group, Kikyou, Sesshoumaru, and Naraku, were moving to this clearing. _

_The battle would be great._

_The battle would be terrible._

_And, most terrifying of all, this battle might be their last. _

_There were the unanswered questions, the wild cards if you would: The fate of Kikyou, Kohaku and Kagura were the minor ones. The fate of the Jewel of Four Souls, the fate of many lives, the fate of their world in its past, present, and future, were all coming down to this._

_So no pressure. _

_Kikyou, Kagome, Inuyasha, Sango, Miroku, Kirara, Kouga, the Wolf Tribe, and Sesshoumaru stood side-by-side, comrades in arms._

_None of them really knew how it happened. All they knew was that one moment they stood, battle-ready, weapons of all sort raised as they felt the dark presence come in from all sides, the next they were only spirits, standing dumbfounded at the gates to the Other World. _

_They hadn't known that the Shikkon no Tama at Kagome's throat was nothing more than a common stone with a clever spell placed upon it, and had been so for several months._

_And as their bodies lay, empty eyes staring at the one to die last, he had only one thought: This wasn't a battle. It was a massacre. _

"Even sickness!"

_"I'm not feeling so good."_

_That had been all she'd said. That was all. How the hell were any of them supposed to know what it could come to?_

_Slowly, the changes came about her body. Her skin caked over with scabs. This they could ignore, just pretend it was bug bites. Then she didn't eat so much, and then stopped eating at all. At this point she weakened considerably, and then it got to the point where she couldn't keep up so well._

_"Oh, it's just a cold," she insisted stubbornly. "Isn't that funny? Grandpa keeps making up all those weird illnesses and then I start getting sick!" At the end of this last comment she started giggling weakly._

_Then there was the final indignity, the first time she had a coughing fit. They'd all assumed she was just choking and he moved to slam her back, after all they'd been through there was no way she was going to croak choking. She'd held her hands to her face, as was polite. When she pulled them away there was blood dripping for them. _

_They'd started taking her home. They were really far away, at least a two-week walk, but that didn't matter, of course they'd get there in time. The girl was too damn stubborn to die, that's what Inuyasha kept saying whenever someone got weepy. _

_'Well, at least this is as bad as she can get,' was Sango's thought. They could do without her when fighting, at least until they things got desperate._

_As fate would have it, the next day it got worse._

_Sango had gone to wake up the girl, poked her soundly in the shoulder and then chased Miroku off so she could change, something she had to do more often now that her clothing had a nasty habit of being blood-covered more often than not._

_She came back ten minutes later. "Kagome, it's time to get up. I know, I'm tired too." She put on a half-hearted grin. It fell off of her face in an instant. She prodded Kagome in the shoulder, hard. The body didn't twitch. Neither girl blinked. The chest wasn't going up and down anymore. When she rolled the girl over, her head lolled to the side and blood dripped from her mouth. _

_Sango didn't realize she was screaming until she heard it herself. _

"That's not even it! There's poison, if one of us ever got possessed, even an accident! We could fall, or starve, good god, what if we ran out of food? We could break our necks, or crack our heads. I mean, I don't want to die yet! I'm not even sixteen! I have things I want to do, things I want to say." her cheeks became a rather remarkable shade of pink. "I'm not done with this place yet!" Kagome was panicking at this point, and her eyes grew wide. "Or what if our bodies just stopped working! Just 'cause someone decided they should! For no reason at-"

An incredibly mad hanyou had seized her by the shoulders. "Stop talking like that! I'll kill you if you keep thinking like that! No one is going to die, what, have you been talking to Naraku too much?"

Kagome sat there shaking, obviously not entirely soothed by death threats. "You don't know that. You don't know anything about what could happen, we might as well be sitting on the edge of a pot of boiling water."

So they sat there, thinking for a full minute. At long last the hanyou muttered, "If that's all the ways we have to die, think of all the ways we have to live."

A/N-Man, that was WEIRD. Anyhoo, hope you people enjoyed.


End file.
